Lessons · Verbal Reasoning
CLT Verbal Reasoning · Lesson
Function of a part
These questions ask why the author included a sentence, a quotation, an example or a paragraph. The answer is about its job, not its content.
- Read the part, then the sentences on both sides of it.
- Ask what the part does for the argument: introduces a claim, supports it, gives an example, answers an objection, shifts direction.
- Pick the choice whose verb names that job.
Q. An author arguing that habit makes people blind to beauty tells a story about a man who never noticed the cathedral on his street. The story serves to...
Answer illustrate the claim with a concrete example.
The story is not the point; it supports the point. Its job is illustration.
- A choice that summarizes the part accurately but does not say what it does is the trap.
- Watch for words like "contradict" or "undermine": a part almost always supports the author's own point.
Every practice question comes with a full explanation, including why each wrong choice is wrong. Free, with no account.